Quashing the Evander Kane trade rumors

The Illegal Curve Hockey Show aired at a special time of 4pm-6pm on Wednesday, June 20 in place of Hustler & Lawless. With the NHL Draft approaching, a majority of the show was discussing the current rumors and speculation surrounding the Jets. The following quotes are transcribed and paraphrased from the latest episode available at IllegalCurve.com. To listen to the full show, you can download it directly at IllegalCurve.com or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

On Saturday June 23, Renaud Lavoie of RDS tweeted (@RenLavoieRDS) “What’s going on with the Jets ? I hear from a player on Winnipeg that Kane doesn’t want to negotiate a new deal ?”

Since the rumor originated during the airing of the Illegal Curve Hockey Show, it was immediately dismissed, host Drew Mindell did not put too much stock into the tweet.

The rumors continued throughout the weekend and were a prominent news story leading into Wednesday’s Illegal Curve Hockey Show on TSN Radio 1290.

Hockey Night in Canada’s Elliotte Friedman, wrote in his 30 thoughts this week (a must read for any hockey fan)

“Asked a couple of GMs if they’d heard Evander Kane is available. Both said no. Is it possible the relationship is strained? Yes sir, but trading a 20-year-old 30-goal scorer is risky business. Both GMs did say they would absolutely be interested if Kane got to the market. ”

He came on the Illegal Curve Hockey Show this Wednesday and elaborated on his 9th thought of the week:

“I have a regular routine that I go through with Hotstove (the weekly HNIC segment). There’s a bunch of guys I get in touch with and speak to, and from there everything else kind of goes.

I had already spoken to a few people on Saturday, when someone sent me a note saying they heard the rumor about Evander Kane and that Renaud Levoie had tweeted it out of Montreal.

The last two guys I spoke to, I said, “is there anything to this, have you guys heard that Evander Kane is out there?” and they both said no. I texted one of guys who I had previously spoke to and I said, “sorry to bother you again, but this is what I’m hearing, have you heard this?” and they said no.

If Evander Kane is available, these three guys I spoke to hadn’t heard it. So either, it hadn’t gotten to them yet, or Winnipeg is keeping it pretty quiet.

And then the following question was, if he was out there, would you be interested. And the answer was, you’d absolutely have to be, because it’s hard to find a twenty year old thirty goal scorer in the NHL.

What I think is going on is, everybody knows about all the rumors that happened last year in Winnipeg. I assure (you) there probably had to be a lengthy conversation after the season in terms of what the organization expects from him, and what he expects from the organization.

I think that’s what they’re going through right now. If you’re the Winnipeg Jets and you struggle to score goals, you’re saying to him, we’re not that interested in trading you, unless the return is enormous. They probably want to settle, and see where everything stands with him before they even go down that road.”

TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger was also a guest on the program and had this to say about the current state of Evander Kane negotiations:

“No, I don’t (think that Evander Kane is on the trade market). I base that on what I saw today, and what I saw today was Don Meehan, Craig Oster (Kane’s agents), Kevin Cheveldayoff and the Winnipeg Jets meeting here in Pittsburgh, and beginning the process.

This was an introductory meeting, I know they spent some time dispelling the rumor out there and all the speculation that this guy wants out. There’s no perfect fit for any player, I don’t’ know that Evander Kane has any issues, real tangible issues with the Winnipeg Jets. I kind of doubt it, given that there has been a negotiation here, at least one that’s starting.

This is going to take some time; they didn’t button down on the hard numbers. I believe they talked about term, I don’t know what the years would be. But again, this is just a starting point, and I’m sure a couple of weeks from now they’ll be closer to a deal that makes sense for both sides.”